Oh such fond recollections!
Hi Jetcone,
That was another life time, but one of great memories. The bar you are referring to used to be called the Saddle Tram(p), which was attached to the Exchange Hotel. It had the tiniest dance floor that was about three or four feet off the ground, if memory serves me well. It made for very intimate dancing with strangers and, yes, there were those notorious saddle bar stools. The Exchange Hotel had hundreds of stuffed toys hanging from the ceiling and at the back was a set of stairs, which led to another basement bar that was only dimly lit with those purple lights that made everything white fluoresce. The only thing one could make out about others was the white of their eyes, teeth and the lint on their clothes. Much fun could be had there.
The most notable thing I remember about Patchs was the light-up dance floor and the video screen. It didn't win prizes for best decor, but it was good fun. Patchs used to get raided for drugs a lot and was eventually shut down in the mid-eighties. I think the original owners later re-opened it, after a thorough refurbishment, and called it DCM (Don't Cry Mama), which was also a great club.
Of course you may recall the Mignight Shift, Albury Hotel and, best of all, the Taxi Club. Those are still around, even though many others have disappeared. The Taxi Club was the place when there was no other place left to party. In them days most clubs shut their doors at three or four in the morning, but the Taxi club was always open till whenever and a notorious gathering place for trashed trannies and other sorry, but fun detritus.
Anyway, that was nice of you to bring this up. Perhaps we were only inches away from each other when you were visiting Oxford Street. Stranger things happen all the time.
I think all of these establishments used regular forced air cooling to climate control their premises (gotta stay relevant to the post).
So, when was the last time you came to visit this place?
Cheers
rapunzel
